


full of love, full of hopeful smiles

by warptimeandspace



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Dancing, Drabble Collection, Established Relationship, F/F, M/M, Minor Illness, TAZ Amnesty, Weddings, minor alcohol mention, the song istanbul
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-23 14:11:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18152888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warptimeandspace/pseuds/warptimeandspace
Summary: “What place has been your favorite?” Aubrey asks.“Oh, that’s easy,” Dani says as she pulls the blankets closer around them, “Right here with you,”or; a collection of danbrey drabbles, featuring special guest indruck wedding





	full of love, full of hopeful smiles

 

“I don’t know why I’m doing this,” Aubrey says in a panic. Her stomach hurts and she hasn’t been able to pull in a full breath for hours. “This is stupid. I should just cancel the application.”  
  
“Aubrey,” Dani says gently. They’re in the lobby of Amnesty Lodge and Aubrey is pacing back and forth across the honey hardwoods as Dani sits at the check-in desk, a sketchbook open overlapping the room occupancy chart.  
  
“No, really,” Aubrey says. “I’ll email and say I made a mistake, or I’ll make a phone call and ask them to toss out the envelope. I don’t want this. I don’t want to go to college.”  
  
“But you do,” Dani says, laying her pencil down. “You want to be a paramedic.”  
  
Aubrey does want to be a paramedic. She wants to get her certificate so she can help the occupants of the lodge. She wants to help the people of the greater Kepler area too because good first responders in the area are few and far between. She wants to help people more than just every other month.  
  
But this is also a scary thing to do, a thing Aubrey told her parents she wouldn’t do and is doing now despite her previous conversations. She never promised that she wouldn’t go to college, never promised that magic would be her only gig, but Aubrey feels a little like she’s lying to her mom.  
  
“And you’re sure it’s all right with you?” Aubrey asks, “The twenty-four on, forty-eight off shifts?”  
  
“Oh wow,” Dani says sarcastically, “We’ve never handled anything like that before. The Pine Guard schedule is so traditional. Whatever are we going to do?”  
  
Aubrey laughs. “Thank you for your support,” She says dryly. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”  
  
“You feel any better?” Dani asks. She has a streak of dirt pushed across her chin and her smile is soft and beautiful.  
  
“Yeah,” Aubrey says, “I do. Thanks.”  
  


•

“You are so gross right now,” Aubrey says as she kneels down beside Dani on the bathroom floor, “I have never met a grosser human being.”  
  
“Jokes on you,” Dani says as she wipes at her sweaty face, “I’m not even human, barely a being.”  
  
“That’s such a funny goof,” Aubrey says, “So funny I can almost ignore the fact that you look like you’re being killed by your immune system.”  
  
“Hmm,” Dani says mildly, “Well, you’re not wrong. This does feel like dying.”  
  
Aubrey sighs as she sweeps Dani’s bangs out of her eyes. “When was the last time you got the flu?” She asks.  
  
“Like seven years ago,” Dani says.  
  
“You lucky little shit.”  
  
“Apparently not!” Dani whines, “I have it now!”  
  
“I get sick all the time,” Aubrey says. “You have to pay your dues.”  
  
“It’s your human germs,” Dani says, “You’ve infected me.”  
  
“Oh really,” Aubrey says lightly, “Does that mean you want Dr. Bonkers and I to go back to our old room?”  
  
_“No, no, no,”_ Dani says quickly, reaching for Aubrey’s hand. “Please don’t go.”  
  
“It’s okay,” Aubrey says, “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.”  
  


•

Dani keeps a crossbow and bolts on her side of the bed, tucked nearly underneath the frame. The make of the bow is different than what Aubrey recalls from movies and TV. The wood is more copper-toned it just barely gives off a faint light orange. On the nights leading up to hunts, the nights where Aubrey especially treasures sleeping in this warm full-sized bed because she knows she won’t later, Dani curls one arm around Aubrey’s middle and rests another on the weapon.  
  
“I hope you know,” She says, “That I would protect you.”  
  
Aubrey could set the world on fire. This is not what Dani means.  
  
“I know,” Aubrey says, pressing a soft kiss to Dani’s bare shoulder, “I know.”  
  


•

It’s late at Amnesty Lodge, sometime near one in the morning, but the mood in the lobby is bright. For the first time in almost two weeks, Amnesty Lodge has no guests. There are no tourists and even better, no Agent Stern. He had been called away for a briefing a state over this morning, leaving a full twenty-four hours before he would be back. The front door to the lodge is locked and the curtains are drawn, a **_no vacancies_** sign lit in the window.  
  
The kitchen door has been left open and Ned is mixing drinks. Aubrey can see Barclay sitting on the counter as they chat, Ned twirling around the kitchen as he shakes a margarita shaker. A sprinkling of people have their glamours off; Moira glides across the carpet without her toes touching the floor and when Dani smiles a sharp-toothed grin at Aubrey she glows. For reasons that probably won’t make sense to tomorrow’s Aubrey but are perfectly logical to tonight’s tipsy Aubrey, they are dancing.  
  
Despite her theatre kid past, Aubrey has never been a very inspired dancer. She can follow directions well enough when they’re given, and her sense of rhythm is passable, but she never really picked it up. It takes work for Aubrey to dance so she doesn’t often. When she does, it’s because Dani wants a partner.  
  
Dani loves to dance.  
  
Dani can classically ballroom waltz like a nineteenth-century princess and her Moonwalk is Jackson worthy. If Aubrey can name a dance Dani can show her how to do it. The Jitterbug is no exception.  
  
“Jitterbug is technically just slang for swing,” Dani explains excitedly as she pushes an armchair against the wall. After careful negation, perhaps more accurately characterized as begging, Mama granted them half the lobby to turn into a temporary dance floor. “We’re going to be mostly doing steps from the Lindy Hop and the Jive, but Jitterbug is just so lovely to say.”  
“So about how often do you think you’re going to be lifting me off the ground?” Aubrey asks as she pushes the final chair out of the way.  
  
“Maybe once tonight,” Dani says with a grin. “If you’re sweet to me.”  
  
“Well, all right then,” Aubrey says. “Teach me how to Dougie.”  
  
Music starts. Aubrey turns to see that Jake has started Dani’s record player, which she had carefully carried down from the third floor and set up on the reception desk. He smirks and shrugs as if to say _I don’t know what you’re looking at me for_ , and walks in the other direction to talk to Duck where he’s sitting on the stairs, phone in hand.  
  
Dani takes one of Aubrey’s hands in each of hers. Linked so they face each other head-on. Aubrey can see the uneven smudges of graphite pushed up against Dani’s nose and cheek, the creeping brown growing into her dyed blond hair, and the orange light that flickers in her eyes. She is breathtaking and Aubrey loves her like breathing.  
  
“All right,” Dani says after a long moment, her eyes soft and warm, “We’re going to start with an eight-step.”  
  


•

Aubrey was nine the last time she attended a wedding. The bride was one of her mother’s friends that she didn’t know very well and there were no other kids around for her to play with. Aubrey had been forced to dress up in a crinkly party dress and the ceremony was very so long that she fell asleep near the end of it. Other than the sparkling apple juice at the reception, Aubrey did not enjoy herself.  
  
Now, the Monongahela smells fresh and clean. There is a light floral scent in the air that drifts to Aubrey from the mounds of wild Snowball Viburnum. The grass against her bare feet is cool but dry. Aubrey is amongst friends and is enjoying herself immensely.  
  
“Is my tie tied right?” Duck asks, tipping his head up so that Aubrey and Ned can see it more clearly. He looks nervous, though not as much as Aubrey had expected him to. Anxious over the waiting at the end of this aisle and stumbling over his vows.  
  
“How should I know?” Ned asks, the most unhelpful best man Duck has ever had, “You wear ties almost every day. I haven’t worn one in years.”  
  
“The tie looks fine,” Aubrey assures, the most reassuring groomsman of the party in comparison. She sees movement near Amnesty Lodge, other people in semiformal attire making their way over to the woods: Indrid walking with Mama, Barclay, and Dani. “You good to go Duck?”  
  
Duck grins a goofy smile. ”Yeah, ” he says, ”I’m good.”  
  
Hours later, Aubrey is standing on the edge of a carpet dance floor. Arms snake around Aubrey’s middle from behind. She leans back into Dani’s embrace as she kisses the top of her head.  
“Hey you,” Dani whispers,  
  
“Hi there,” Aubrey says. “How’s it going?”  
  
“Oh, you know,” Dani says with a laugh, “It’s going.”  
  
“Do you want to get married?” Aubrey asks suddenly.  
  
_“What?”_  
  
Aubrey turns around so she and Dani can have this conversation face to face. “Let me try this again,” She says carefully. “What would you think about getting married sometime in the future? Not today or tomorrow but someday?”  
  
“You want to marry me?” Dani asks, her voice growing giddy.  
  
“Well, yeah,” Aubrey says, laughing nervously. “We can forget about it if you want to though! Really, it’s not that important—”  
  
“When you propose to me for real, you’ll have to do it better than this,” Dani interrupts, “I expect to be romanced.”  
  
“I can do that,” Aubrey says, “Expect extreme romance. Chocolates and custom records and flowers you can replant in the garden levels of romance.”  
  
“I’ll be ready.”  
  


•

Under the covers, Aubrey is warm, warm, warm. Dani curls against her chest and Aubrey can smell her citrus shampoo. The hour is so late that it has become early again but Aubrey is not tired.  
  
“I used to live somewhere cold,” Dani murmurs.  
  
“Oh, really?” Aubrey says quietly, gently carding her fingers through Dani’s hair.  
  
“The gate was in the mountains when Jake and I first came through,” Dani says, “Jake loved it. He’s always loved the snow. I didn’t, but I liked being alone even less, so I pushed through. That was back before we had glamour charms; did a lot of hiding back then.”  
  
“I’m sorry,” Aubrey says.  
  
“It’s okay,” Dani says, “I’m not mad about it or anything. It’s over now. We met other Slyphs, got glamours,”  
  
“Moved somewhere warmer?” Aubrey asks.  
  
“When the gate did,” Dani laughs, a soft little sound that brushes against Aubrey’s skin. “We went so many places, became so many people. Daphne and Jace in Rome. Danah and Jamie in Ireland. Danella and Joel in Constantinople.”  
  
“I thought it was Istanbul?” Aubrey teases.  
  
“Not back then,” Dani says. “Old Constantinople only officially changed its name to Istanbul in the 1930s.”  
  
“What place has been your favorite?” Aubrey asks.  
  
“Oh, that’s easy,” Dani says as she pulls the blankets closer around them, “Right here with you,”  
  


 

**Author's Note:**

> title from party tattoos by dodie, because it's such a fun little song  
> please come visit me at [my tumblr!](https://warptimeandspace.tumblr.com/) if you prompt me i'll try and fill it


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